A 90-room Boutique Hotel to be Included in $56.4
Million Redevelopment
of the Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, New York
To be Operated by Innvest Lodging Services

By Mark Sommer, The Buffalo News,
N.Y.McClatchy-Tribune Regional News

Jan. 25, 2013--A 90-room boutique hotel will be going into the
iconic Gothic twin towers of the Richardson Olmsted Complex, operated
by the same company that runs The Mansion on Delaware Avenue.

The $56.4 million project, at 400 Forest Ave., which includes
a high-tech event and conference center, also will occupy two adjacent
ward buildings. In total, the hotel will take over about one-third of
the sprawling, 480,000-square-foot Medina sandstone and brick complex
that opened as the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane in 1880 but has
been dormant for years.

Design and construction for the first phase of the project is
expected to take nearly three years, with a planned opening in late
2015. A second phase could expand the hotel into one or more additional
buildings, raising the total number of rooms to 120.

The announcement will be made at a news conference today by
Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy.

"For 40 years, the Richardson Olmsted Complex sat mostly
vacant, and there were so many people who kept the dream that it could
have a new future. We're now seeing the realization of that dream,"
said Monica Pellegrino Faix, executive director of the Richardson
Center Corp.

"This marks the site's transformation from a relic of the past
to an icon for today."

Dennis Murphy, the founder and sole owner of Innvest Lodging
Services, which owns and operates 19 hotels, said he will be developing
a unique, high-tech facility and is anxious to get started.

"We're beyond excited. As a company headquartered in Buffalo,
we've been working on developing this project for the past 18 months.
We received a lot of accolades for The Mansion on Delaware Avenue. We
think this facility will also bring attention to Buffalo, but in a
different way."

Murphy said he expects the hotel and conference center -- to
be equipped with advanced technology that will allow meetings and
conferences to be broadcast globally -- to draw business primarily from
a 200-mile radius.

Restoration of the grounds began last year on the new South
Lawn, which is intended to create a welcoming gateway and public space.
It will have a contemporary design with principles developed by
Frederick Law Olmsted, such as a curvilinear entry, large open space
surrounded by dense tree canopies and sustainable design focused on
native plantings.

There are also plans down the road to create an architecture
center for visitors to learn about the historic complex, and about
landscape architecture and urban design in Buffalo and Western New
York.

It's a dramatic turn of affairs for the Richardson Olmsted
Complex, which was emptied in 1974 except for the Administration
Building, which was vacated in 1994. The site deteriorated under the
state's ownership, and it took the threat of a lawsuit by
preservationists to loosen funds for stabilization.

The Richardson Center Corp. was created by then-Gov. George E.
Pataki in July 2006 to oversee the site's redevelopment, and some $76.5
million was allocated for that purpose.

Most of the funds for the hotel -- $37.6 million -- will come
from that pot of money, leaving $12.5 million for future purposes. The
remaining funds for the hotel project will come from Historic and New
Markets tax credits.

Three architectural firms with extensive backgrounds in public
buildings will be involved, led by Flynn Battaglia Architects, and
including New York City-based Deborah Berke Partners and Boston-based
Goody Clancy. The construction manager will be LP Ciminelli.

Flynn Battaglia's work on historic preservation includes
restoration of the Guaranty Building and the exterior of St. Paul's
Cathedral, redevelopment of the Roycroft Campus, reconstruction of the
main dome at the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens and
conversion of the Asbury Delaware Church to Babeville.

The first phase is estimated to create 545 construction jobs,
and eventually 75 to 90 permanent full-time jobs.

Howard Zemsky, president of the Richardson board, praised
Chairman Stanford Lipsey's "dedication and leadership," and Gov. Andrew
M. Cuomo and Empire State Development Corp. for being "extraordinary
partners" in helping the project become a reality.

"From the earliest stages of planning for this project, with
the Urban Land Institute, the hospitality product was envisioned and
has withstood the test of time," Zemsky said. "The community has had a
real aspiration to activate and rehabilitate this building and site for
many decades, and I think for the first time we can clearly imagine it
as vibrant, active and successful."

The project will be bringing new life into one of Buffalo's
most celebrated works of architecture. The complex was Richardson's
first major work, and is an example of what came to be called his
Richardsonian Romanesque style.

Buffalo is the only city with major works by the three
greatest American architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
-- Richardson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan.